Railway Construction Ensures Stability on Six Key Fronts and Maintain Security in Six Areas

　　The Xiangyang-Wanzhou Section of Zhengzhou-Wanzhou HSR started the trial test for operation, and the integrated commissioning & test was started on multiple new railway lines, such as the Puyang-Zhengzhou Section of Jinan-Zhengzhou HSR, the Huzhou-Hangzhou Section of Hefei-Hangzhou HSR and the Yiyang-Changsha Section of Changde-Yiyang-Changsha HSR, approaching to the scheduled opening dates. During this spring-to-summer transitional period, railway construction has advanced in full swing across the entire country. Seizing this golden time of construction, railway builders remained at their posts and made vigorous efforts to ensure all the key construction projects uninterrupted even during the holidays and festivals, bringing a new upsurge of railway construction and updating the construction progress. The country witnesses a railway network “blueprint” continuously refined, bringing more magnificent sceneries to the vast and beautiful land.

　　Since the beginning of this year, the Leading Party Group of China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. has resolutely implemented the spirit of important speech and the spirit of important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping on the railway sector, adhered to the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, and highlighted the priorities to overcome inadequacies and weaknesses, and develop networked capacities with reinforced supporting facilities. The railway construction has been promoted in a scientific, orderly, safe and high-quality manner, by reasonably scheduling and allocating construction resources in a priority sequence of “projects to be open-to-traffic, projects under construction and projects to be commenced”, and coordinating the epidemic prevention and control with the construction organization, to make the railway sector’s contributions in ensuring the stability on six fronts and maintaining security in six areas and stabilizing the national economy. As of the end of April, 581 kilometers of new railway lines have opened to traffic this year, of which 358 kilometers are high-speed railways. The cumulative investment in fixed assets reached 157.46 billion yuan, up 0.6% year on year.

　　Stabilize investment, for supporting the implementation of major national strategies. It is emphasized both at the annual Central Economic Work Conference held at the end of last year and in this year's government work report "to make proactive investments in infrastructure as appropriate". Giving full play to the advantages of railway construction in terms of massive investment, huge personnel demand, long industrial chain, and obvious effect in promoting economic growth, and focusing on serving the implementation of major national strategies, the railway sector has promoted the high-quality construction of Sichuan-Tibet Railway, paid close attention to the implementation of railway projects among the 102 projects outlined in the 14th Five-Year Plan, and solidly implemented major projects such as the HSR along the Yangtze River, the capacity upgrading of New Western Land-sea Corridor and CRE trains, in a bid to fulfill the goals in terms of investments and actual practice as much as possible. Regarding the railway on the snow-covered plateau, the east section (between Ya’an and Xinduqiao) and west section (between Bomi and Nyingchi) of Sichuan-Tibet Railway have been put into continuous operation at the design capacities. The key construction of the middle section from Xinduqiao to Bomi is steadily advanced, with the Shergyla Mountain Tunnel and Kangding No.2 Tunnel bored for one kilometer and the piers and abutments of Dadu River Super Major Bridge established. Beijing Fengtai Railway Station, the largest railway terminal station dedicated to passenger transport in Asia and the first mega-size station integrating passenger railway yards for both high speed and conventional railways in China, is about to be put into operation, leading the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region to its further development. All these key projects have been favorable conditions for the implementation of major national strategies and the stabilization of the overall Chinese economy.

　　Reopen the economy, with the sense of responsibility of the railway sector at this critical moment. As Jilin province eradicates Covid cases that pose the potential of community transmission, CR expedites the construction of the Jilin Section of Shenyang-Changbaishan HSR. On April 18, the No.1 transverse gallery to the entrance section was bored through for Baishan Tunnel, the longest tunnel of the line. In the neighboring Liaoning province, an array of projects has been resumed in a vigorous manner, including the Shenyang railway hub, and the upgrade of the Fenghuangcheng-Jinshanwan section of Shenyang-Dandong Railway. Since the beginning of this year, CR has been taking a coordinated approach for epidemic control at construction sites, on-site project organization, as well as the communication for the transport of raw materials and equipment. The move aims to minimize the epidemic impact, and give equal importance to epidemic control and project progress. At the same time, CR strives to balance epidemic control in conjunction and socioeconomic development. For that to happen, it has been working with local authorities to tide through the difficulties, do more to facilitate the reopen of the economy, keep up to the project schedule and minimize the impact of the Covid outbreak. After the epidemic spread is alleviated in Baise, 156 construction sites of key projects under construction in Guangxi, such as Fangchenggang-Dongxing Railway, Nanning-Yulin Railway, Nanning-Chongzuo Railway and Liuzhou Terminal Reconstruction, were resumed into full-swing work and production. The Guangxi Section of Guiyang-Nanning HSR has successively achieved the milestone objectives, including construction initiation for rail storage facilities and station buildings and completion of bridges in the main line sections. Construction has also advanced in full swing in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, such as Baotou-Yinchuan HSR, Jining-Datong-Yuanping HSR and Jining-Tongliao Railway Electrification Upgrade, and the annual investment fulfilled reached more than 900 million yuan, which has effectively promoted the local development in relevant industries and boosted the regional economy and social stabilization. The Yangtze River Delta region is the main battlefield of railway construction, where 781 projects under construction were orderly recovered into normal work and production, including Chaohu-Maanshan Intercity Railway, Huaibei-Suzhou-Bengbu Intercity Railway, Chizhou-Huangshan HSR, Hangzhou-Quzhou HSR. Railway spirit shines through the dark cloud of the epidemic. The CHINA RAILWAY enterprises firmly shouldered their responsibilities and delivered eye-catching achievements for work and production resumption.

　　Improve people’s livelihood, by fulfilling the multiple travel needs of people. With Huanggang-Huangmei HSR open to traffic on April 22, Huangzhou, Xishui, Qichun, Wuxue, and other cities entered into the HSR era, bringing happiness to local people. This year, a batch of new railway lines debuted, including Akesu-Alaer Railway which entered service in the joyous and warm atmosphere created by the singing and dancing of the people from the ethnic groups in south Xinjiang; The Taizicheng-Chongli Section of Taizicheng-Xilinhot Railway which provided high-quality transport services for the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, contributing to the glory of Olympics shared among the Chinese people; Xingtai-Heshun Railway, a new transport corridor of coal produced in Shanxi,  delivering the “black gold” energy to numerous families throughout the country. Chongqing-Kunming HSR, Yinchuan-Lanzhou HSR, Hetian-Ruoqiang Railway, Dali-Ruili Railway, Chengdu-Lanzhou Railway, Lijiang-Shangrila Railway and more projects released a steady flow of news of victories, connecting more and more remote western places to the national railway network. At the same time, Fuzhou-Xiamen HSR, Jinan-Laiwu HSR, Jingmen-Jingzhou HSR, Beijing-Tangshan Railway, Hangzhou-Wenzhou Railway and other projects are under full-swing construction, taking a solid step towards the opening to traffic.

　　The 11th meeting of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs held recently underlined the imperativeness of comprehensively advancing modern infrastructure development, assigning new missions and responsibilities for railway construction and development. Taking such an opportunity, the railway sector anchors its investment target of railway construction for the first half of this year and focuses on the priorities of ensuring the stability on six key fronts and maintaining security in six key areas against the background of epidemic prevention and control, in a bid to deliver more benefits to the public via railway construction and development.